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Randy Johnson went 18-2 that year. He started thirty games and pitched 214 1/3 innings — over seven innings a start. He threw three shutouts. His ERA in the fricking Kingdome was 2.48. He struck out *294* hitters. That’s still the 66th-best season for strikeouts in baseball history. For K/IP, it’s now #5 — at the time, it was #1. He walked 65. Compared to the performance of the league average pitcher, today’s it’s still one of the best fifty seasons ever.

Edgar had a spectacular season, too, but he gets a statue. Two other guys who had good seasons get statues.

Randy gets nothing. He doesn’t show up much in the highlight clips they show between innings — look, it’s Randy, congratulating someone in the dugout! Or jumping onto a dogpile!

Randy didn’t leave on good terms. I’ve written about that elsewhere, but the why, and what’s behind it, are unimportant. But so did Griffey, fighting with management on his way out as he tried to become a Red. Why does Randy get ignored, when half a season of Griffey warrant a statue?

And whether or not you think that recognizing the success of the 95 team is worthwhile, or a distraction, or what, we can all agree that ignoring the best player on that team is shameful. Randy was good to the Mariners and Seattle in his time here, and deserves better than this.

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Comments

122 Responses to “Remember Randy Johnson, 1995 Mariner”

Baltimore M's Fan on
June 2nd, 2005 5:31 pm

La dee da. I’m talking to myself. Why is it that whenever I have time to talk on here no is around?

Eric on
June 2nd, 2005 5:41 pm

If your doing the ’95 vs ’01 match-up wouldn’t it be Johnson vs Moyer in Game 1 and Wolcott vs Freddy in Game 2, then Bosio vs Sele then Benes vs Abbott then back to Johnson vs Moyer.

Overall the pitching is better in ’01 and when you factor Dome vs Safeco the offense is probably close. RJ does give 95 two likely wins but don’t forget how good Moyer was in ’01, he shut down a very good Cleveland team in game 5.

#96 I don’t really understand where you are coming from here, unless it is based on what plays on ESPN or something. There were many times when every single pitch Randy Johnson threw in his prime was exciting. And certainly every two-strike pitch was.

firova on
June 2nd, 2005 6:13 pm

DMZ: Also, RJ did it in a short season. He racked up almost 300 strikeouts while losing two or three starts to the late start to the season. Could have won twenty as well.

Ralph Malph on
June 2nd, 2005 6:42 pm

The only problem with that game 1 sim is that Jamie threw 142 pitches over 8 innings. He never recovered from the Tommy John surgery that offseason.

I see Olerud went 0 for 4 with 3 K’s off RJ. I’d be tempted to play Buhner at DH and Edgar at 1B. Hate to have Jay on the bench against the lefty.

Rob on
June 2nd, 2005 7:06 pm

I ran a couple games for game 1, one of the ones I did. The 01 team won 20-1 with 24hits and NO homers. Right….

Steve Thornton on
June 2nd, 2005 7:17 pm

Believe it or not, a lot of people don’t really grasp how dominating a pitcher Randy has been. I find it hard to believe that people don’t remember the part he played here in 1995 — the last Anaheim start, and the relief appearance were incredible, every bit as much so as Edgar’s double.

But how many people are aware that the only thing keeping him from breaking Nolan Ryan’s “impossible” strikeout record is longevity? Through last season, his “age 40” season, he had 4161 Ks. That’s less than 500 short of Ryan through the same age, and Randy started pitching much later in life than Ryan did. Of course, Ryan had 1167 AFTER his age 40, which really remarkable, but Randy could catch him if he pitches until 46 as well (which is pretty darn unlikely, but still).

And of course Randy has been a far, far more EFFECTIVE pitcher than Ryan ever was, partly because, despite his early wildness, he’s thrown well under half as many walks as Ryan’s even-more-incredible-than-the-Ks 2,795 walks. As a result, Randy has the eighth-best adjusted ERA of all time, while Ryan’s not in the top 200.

While I very much remember the “bad Randy, good Randy” days, when every start was either 14 strikeouts or 14 hits in the first inning (one of the flakiest pitchers of all time then), he learned how to turn it around here, and he is still by a wide margin the greatest ever Mariner, judging by his entire career, not just his years here. A-Rod might pass him someday, but he hasn’t yet. Griffey added more value to the M’s themselves, but nothing since. Edgar, as much as I love him, was a DH, not a SS or CF or starting pitcher.

One day people will realize that we watched the first great years of one of the inner circle of great pitchers, every bit the equal of Clemens and Seaver, Pedro and Maddux, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Pete Alexander, Christy Mathewson and Lefty Grove.

dave paisley on
June 2nd, 2005 8:04 pm

What’s the obsession with Wolcott as the #2? He started six games in the regular season and wasn’t even on the roster for the Yankees series.

See what I was saying about pitching depth? I imagine Lou got tossed from the ’95 team by the 6th inning.

The Ancient Mariner on
June 2nd, 2005 9:54 pm

The one thing on bashing the M’s for not giving Randy the contract he deserved is that he’d already told them he wasn’t re-signing with Seattle–he was that bitter at Armstrong. He’d even tried to get them not to pick up his option for ’98 so that he could leave sooner. It wouldn’t have mattered what Seattle offered him, he was going to Arizona, where he made his home year-’round.

Mords on
June 2nd, 2005 10:04 pm

Maybe the fact that Buhner and Edgar are retired/stayed with the M’s and Griffey’s barely played since we traded him allows them to be collectibles.

Shawn on
June 2nd, 2005 10:37 pm

#113:
EC, that is classic! But how would ’01 Lou react to ’95 Lou kicking bases, throwing hats, covering home plate with dirt and whatnot?